Woo. I'm cranking out chapters by the arseload. Go me. Read&&Review. This is one of my favorite chapters. Zong. They're so effing cute.


We soon found out just what that prefect had meant our first night. It was our third week at school. Things between Lucius and myself had toned down a bit, each pushing the fight aside, but not forgetting it in the least. The bruises on each of our faces had not, though, gone unquestioned by Bellatrix the following morning. She had asked us each several times what had happened, and though both of us refused to talk, she was still set on learning what had happened. Every now and then, she'd pop the question into a conversation, asking what exactly had happened. Now, three weeks after our little fiasco, the two of us had healed considerably, but still weren't answering her questions. It was during one of these conversations, in which she posed her undying question countless times that the three of us found out about one of the first of Slytherin's core values.

"Get off it."

"Oh. Come on Rodolphus. What happened?"

"No literally, get off it. You're sitting on my paper."

With a groan of impatience, Bellatrix moved sideways somewhat so that I could retrieve my paper. I had been laden with homework since the first day I got here. I had piles stacked on top of me and the minute I finished it, the teachers were ushering out another. The constant feeling of drowning, finally getting air and then being pushed down again was beginning to take a toll on me. Unlike myself, Bellatrix and Lucius seemed just fine with this load of coursework we were being given. We did our homework together nearly every night and they were always the first to finish; I had my suspicions that they were secretly competing to see who could get their work done the fastest.

"Lucius." Bellatrix huffed, turning sideways on the couch she was sharing with me. "Tell me." She stuck out her bottom lip and sniffed a bit.

"Bellatrix, if that doesn't work with Rodolphus, you should know it won't work with me." He said smartly as he shut his book. I could hear her growling at him under her breath, but I did not know whether it was because he refused to tell her what had happened or whether he had finished before her. Pushing her own essay onto the table that sat in the midst of the three of us, she tried her luck with me again.

"Oh fine. It's not like both of you coming down to breakfast one morning, completely bruised and bloodied is an unnatural occurrence anyway." She said sarcastically.

Looking up from my essay I saw her slump down on the couch and fold her arms across her chest. Lucius and I exchanged glances. She was not to know what had happened that first night. It would only make the both of us look like complete fools. Each of us understood that and intended to keep that night between the two of us.

"For the love of Merlin and everyone else in the room, get a room!"

I started and turned my attention back to Bellatrix. She was sitting on her knees, peering over the back of the couch. This girl was impossible! I could not leave her be for a second before she was doing something outlandish. Following her gaze, my eyes landed on a pair of older students, sixth years by the looks of it, who were wrapped so tightly around each other that it was impossible to tell where one of them ended and the other began. And Bellatrix was yelling at them. I had to agree with her though. No one wanted to see the little show they were putting on. Apparently this sort of thing was common, at least among Slytherins, because this was the fifth or sixth grotesquely attached couple we had seen since day one.

The pair looked over at us, shrugged, and continued with their practice.

"Maybe you didn't hear me." Bellatrix said. I looked over at her and noticed that she had her wand out, pointing for the duo.

"Bella, you can't do anything." I hissed.

"I'm well aware, but they don't know that." She whispered out of the corner of her mouth. I had never seen her like this before. Her whole demeanor had changed in the blink of an eye. Her face was drawn tight and her eyes were heavily boring into the sixth year couple. She looked maddened and nearly possessed.

I watched at the two turned and sized her and her wand up. She was going to get herself killed. I just knew it. She'd get herself killed and I would be left with a dead body on my hands and a lost friend.

Swallowing, I looked Bellatrix over. She still looked determined as ever and for several minutes her and her victims had a rather strange staring contest. Whether intimidated by her wand being out and being fooled into thinking she could do something from their own overwhelming stupidity or whether they were simply tired of her butting in, the pair rose and left the room. As she walked past the girl muttered, "Seems like they'd be used to this sort of thing by now. Happens all the bloody time."

Once they had ascended up the stairs to one of the dormitories, Bellatrix turned around and sat herself back down on the couch. Laying her wand across her lap, she looked around. It was obvious that she was quite proud with herself. I, on the other hand, was just glad she was alive. Sliding down so that my bum hit the floor and my neck was now on the seat of the couch I had been preoccupying, I ran a hand through my hair. "If you ever do that again, I swear I'll kill you myself." I muttered.

I heard her give an arbitrary laugh and shuffle around on the couch.

"What's the point in doing something that outlandish in public?" I asked.

It was Lucius who spoke up. "Because it shows you have power over those around you. Proves you're ashamed of nothing, but the…interesting pair we just watched made a mistake."

"Hmm?" I asked, letting my hand fall to my lap.

"They left the room." Bellatrix finished.

I jumped up and looked at the both of them. "Are you two agreeing and since when are you on the same wave?" Lucius and Bellatrix seemed to be as equally shocked as I was. They never agreed on anything. If one wanted wheat bread, the other wanted rye. It was that simple—they weren't meant to agree, but yet, they had just proved a point together. Blinking several times in succession, I sat back down on the couch. "I think the world is coming to an end." I dramatized while placing the back of my hand to my forehead. "Oh no. I feel faint."

Looking around, I noticed that Bellatrix was watching me without blinking. Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable. "By leaving the room, they bowed to the wishes of someone younger than them." She stated calmly. "They let me have control of the situation and handed me the victory. Snogging in public is disgusting, by it serves its purposes, if you don't back down."

"Wait…wait….WAIT!" I said. "Do you mean to tell me that you're okay with what they were doing when five seconds ago you were going stark mad to get them out?"

She shrugged. "I've changed my mind."

"Why?"

"Because I'm bloody well allowed to. After all, doing what they did shows that you're better in a way and that you have control, power, but if you back down, then you lose it all and look like a buffoon."

She was speaking in circles to me. While I understood her, I didn't understand how she could suddenly switch from the conservative bitch that was threatening to hex the snoggers to the power hungry liberal who was in full support of what they had been doing.

"Would you ever do that?" I asked.

"If I needed to. It depends on the situation."

"Alright." Lucius sat forward in his chair. "Situation: now. Do it."

"Do what?" It was me that spoke instead of Bellatrix. He wasn't about to make her do something just to prove herself.

"Kiss someone." He stated mater of factly.

"Why should she?"

"She said she'd do it, did she not?" He stated more than asked. "So why not do it now?"

"She doesn't bloody well have to just because you demand it." I hated how he always got her to rise to something without lifting a finger. This time she wasn't going to do anything stupid. I was going to stop her.

"Well, if you're so intent on protecting your precious Bellatrix, then why don't you?"

I looked at him and in that moment, I loathed him again. I wanted to fly loose and hit him another time. Just once more. But Bellatrix was there and I would not do that in front of her. "Do what?" I asked, just to frustrate him.

"Kiss someone." Lucius was gritting his teeth as he said it this time.

"Anyone?" I asked.

"Anyone." He repeated.

"Okay then." With a light shrug, I got from my seat, crossed the room, bent down over Lucius, and pecked him on the cheek before he could protest. Standing back, and making sure I was out of arm's reach, I watched for his reaction. Slowly, his face turned a shade of red that I didn't think his pale complexion had the capacity to hold. Then he reached up and wiped his cheek where my lips had touched.

"You did say anyone." I stated, returning back to my seat and rather happy with myself.

"You know perfectly well what I meant." He hissed, now rubbing his cheek so hard that he looked to be trying to light a fire.

"But, I still didn't feel elated with power." Smirking, I folded my hands behind my head and leaned back.

"That's because you didn't do it right." Bellatrix said.

"Oh?" I turned my head so that I could see her and arched my eyebrows.

"You didn't do it right. They were….well…." I watched her stumble for words and watched as she turned a shade of red quite similar to the colour Malfoy currently was. "They were….oh….this." Without warning, Bellatrix did her third outlandish thing of the hour. Closing the distance between us rather quickly, she had leaned into me and surprisingly, gently pecked me on the lips.

My eyes widened in shock and my eyebrows must have disappeared well beneath my hair line. She pulled back and silence stretched out between the three of us.

Coughing nervously, I made to sit up again, managing to drop the book which had been in my lap in the process. "Right right right….still not feeling that elated power." My voice was jerky. I hoped the others couldn't hear that.

"Me either." Bellatrix said and I don't know whether it was my imagination or something else, but she seemed to get back to work rather quickly on her essay, reading it—but her eyes weren't moving at all.

"Anyone know how to perform a blocking charm?" I asked the room at large just to clear the silence. I opened the book I had and began turning the pages rather roughly.

"Hmph." Lucius said and then began muttering in and undertone and I couldn't make out a word he said, but I swore I heard him growl.